Ep. 33 Bernard Salt on his working class childhood, the mentors who have shaped him and how statistics tell human stories.

Bernard Salt is an Australian newspaper columnist, keynote speaker, business advisor and author of six best-selling books, but he is most widely known as a thought leader in demographic patterns and predictions. 

He is also credited with globally popularising concepts such as the ‘Smashed Avocado’, VESPA and Seachange Shifts – changes that are currently reshaping Australia’s culture, economy and society.

But for all his outward-facing and portfolio career success, it turns out that Bernard’s worst nightmare is rocking up to a party and being asked what he does for a living… because in his own words, “well, it’s complicated.” 

From humble beginnings growing up as a working-class kid in a Housing Commission home in country Victoria to today, Bernard has been passionately curious about using statistics to tell stories that inform social trends and human behaviour in Australia, which he still describes as the lucky country.

In this conversation, we go a level under the statistics with Bernard, and discuss how education freed him; and why the pandemic world we’re living in needs a Control / Alt / Delete moment, so we can take the learnings, wake up to where we’re at, and rethink the future of Australia, for ourselves and for future generations.

Guest: Bernard Salt
Website: The Demographics Group

Hosts: Sabina Read and Madeleine Grummet
Producer: Daryl Missen at Purple Wax

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